An advance directive includes statutory power of attorney and directive to physicians and providers of medical services. Health Care Directive for medical services is regulated by Utah Code

Directive to physicians and providers of medical services (equivalent of Living Will) is designed to help you communicate your wishes now about medical treatment and regulated by governed by Utah Code 75-2-1104

According to Utah law the advance health care directive shall be in substantially statutory form or in a form substantially similar to the form approved by prior Utah law. Our website provides you with Health Care Directive forms approved by Utah law.

According to Utah law, a person 18 years of age or older may execute a Health Care Directive. The Directive is binding upon attending physicians and all other providers of medical services.

In order to be valid the Directive shall be:

in writing;

signed by the declarant or by another person in the declarant's presence and by the declarant's expressed direction;

dated; and

signed in the presence of two or more witnesses 18 years of age or older.

A Medical Power of Attorney in Utah is called a Special Power of Attorney and must substantially copy a statutory form. According to Utah Code Section 75-2-1106,
a person 18 years of age or older, the "principal," may designate any other person 18 years of age or older to execute a directive on behalf of the principal after the principal incurs an injury, disease, or illness which renders him unable to make a directive, by executing a special power of attorney before a notary public.

A Medical Power of attorney must be acknowledged before a Notary Public.

The Advance Directive is designed to make known your wishes that your life not to be artificially prolonged by life-sustaining measures if you become terminally ill or unconscious and unable to speak for yourself. Among life-supporting measures discussed in the Advance Directive are: tube feeding and tube hydration; cardiac resuscitation.

In your Utah Directive you reserve the right to give current medical directions to physicians and other medical personnel for as long as you are able to communicate your wishes.

In this document you may also state whether you want to make organ donation, and what parts of your body you wish to donate and for what purpose.

There are empty lines at the end of the form to allow you to state your additional desires.

Utah law expressly encourages the issuance of Declaration for Mental Health Treatment.

We provide a statutory form that is provided for in the Utah Code. It is a declaration that allows, or disallows, mental health treatment. This document allows you to make decisions in advance about three types of mental health treatment:

psychoactive medication,

convulsive therapy, and

short-term (up to 17 days) admission to a mental health facility.

It also gives you the opportunity to appoint a person as your attorney-in-fact to make mental health treatment decisions for you if you become incapable.

The instructions that you include in this declaration will be followed only if a court or two physicians believe that you are
incapable of otherwise making treatment decisions. Otherwise, you will be considered capable to give or withhold consent for
treatment.

You have the right to revoke this document in whole or in part, or the appointment of an attorney-in-fact, at any time you have not been determined to be incapable.

The attending physician will have the responsibility to determine and diagnose a terminal condition and explain that condition to the patient, and/or family or legal proxy. The physician should explain the alternatives available through the Living Will including DNR. The physician should counsel the patient in all options available to the patient.

The physician will issue the form, making sure that the Physician determination section is filled out completely. The physician should not sign the form until the patient has filled out the patient section and signed the form. After the physician signs the form, witnesses must then date and sign the form as will.

The physician should make two copies of the form, give the original with the watermark to the patient or proxy, keep one copy for the patient's medical record, and mail or fax the other copy to the State Bureau of Emergency Medical Services at the address shown on the form.

The physician will attach the bracelet to the patient or present the bracelet to the proxy for placement on the patient. The physician will also inform the patient that the directive may be revoked by an oral statement by the patient; or by destruction of both the directive and bracelet/necklace. The directive can be revoked by the proxy in the same manner. It can also be revoked by the attending physician if he/she determines that the patient is no longer terminal.

Artificial nutrition and hydration means supplying food and water through a conduit such as a tube or intravenous line, where the recipient is not required to chew or swallow voluntarily, including nasogastric tubes, gastrostomies, jejunostomies, and intravenous infusions. Artificial nutrition and hydration does not include assisted feeding, such as spoon or bottle feeding.

Attending physician means the physician selected by or assigned to a person, who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the person.

Declarant means a person 18 years of age or older who has signed or directed the signing of any directive, or for whom a directive has been signed under this part.

Directive means a written document voluntarily executed by or on behalf of a person in accordance with the requirements of this part.

Life-sustaining procedure means:

any medical procedure or intervention which would in the judgment of the attending physician serve only to prolong the dying process; and

artificial nutrition and hydration unless the declarant elects in the declaration to exclude artificially administered nutrition and hydration.

Life-sustaining procedure does not include the administration of medication or the performance of any medical procedure which is intended to provide comfort care or to alleviate pain.

Persistent vegetative state means a state of severe mental impairment, in which only involuntary bodily functions are present and the person totally lacks higher cortical and cognitive function but maintains vegetative brain stem processes for which there exists no reasonable expectation of regaining significant cognitive function as diagnosed by two physicians, one of whom shall be the attending physician, in accordance with reasonable medical judgment.

Terminal condition means a condition caused by injury, disease, or illness, which regardless of the application of life-sustaining procedures, would within reasonable medical judgment produce death, and where the application of life-sustaining procedures serve only to postpone the moment of death of the person.

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To better understand the health care and pecuniary related issues our legal articles, frequently asked questions, facts and other law related information may be of interest to you.

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